IDF Nostalgia thread

As advised me by my old friend and respected member F-14 , who is currently holding the rank of DFI Star , here in Defence Forum of India, I am starting this thread, as there is many old IDF members here, which turns me nostalgic. All the respected members here are requested to post their feelings when they first introduced to Defence Forum / Forums and their precious moments of life and their feeling of joy when they got promoted for their achievement in the Forum.

i came to IDF after a Brife stint at F-16.net back then we were a small bunch of people who wanted to have a good talk on Indian defense and Forieng policy Affairs the ranks used to start from Citizen back then there are a few people who i have a debt for Introducing me to foruming proper like Sri ( the Adimin of the forum )
and su AkA Indian Suokhoi here and many others and as time went on esteemed members like S.A.T.A joined the place and the forum Grew we ahd a grate Pakistani Forumer on the forum (Forgot his name ) alsong with that we had members like Janna shah , Champ and Mughal-e-Azam ( M-e-A was offically the jester of the fourm) then we had a sizeable female condingent with members like Kiwi AkA skippy and Ragahavi along with Jana completing the list we also had many chinies on the forum the Most prominent of which was Bad Guy 2000 slowly we had elections on the fourm i stood for the first election and was not elected and then got elected on the Mod Team standing for the second time it was during this team had the First aussie on the team who was sailor AKA 101st airborne but then that "Ministry" didnt stay that long
as sailor resinged his post owing to disagreements with the management on the second team SATA found a place and he made a grate Admin and then as time went by there was lot of modification to the forum It even had a "Constitution" then in the final time I and Skippy made a Triservice Rank system that was applied on IDF we functioned till the 26th Nov 08 and then the site went offline and never came back the last rank i heald the Rank of Admiral of the Fleet with 4000+ Post to the credit

Actually , I have joined IDF , in its last days, may be on July / August , 2008 and I had only 122 Posts , First , I was not regular in IDF , but later really loved the Forum as well as ambience and as well as the members, there was p2prada , who joined one month later , I presume, I can remember for Agni Missile thread , he gave me +1 reputation , there were many respected members who really were assets to the Forum, and all of them are here, SATA, Riteshji, Nitesh, Phani/Emperor,Johnee, p2prada,Raghavi,LF,ZOOM, Energon, Sayarekad,Rahul Singh, you F-14, there was SRI, and I can also remember Aruni (though he is not here), Badguy was also in IDF, I miss c0der. I had +5 Reputation and promoted to the rank of Sea Man (I can not remember fully), I was also in WAB, but really try to forget that part. I missed IDF , and missed all the members when it went offline. I really love this Forum from my Heart as I believe in my mind IDF is reincarnated as 'Defence Forum of India'.

I had interest in technology (especially Military), issues in our country, and the country itself since my school days. But being from a poor family I never had access to Internet (or any other info media) nor had friends like you guys who share the same interests. The only source of information on these topics was my dad and that too not in such length and details as it is discussed here. So, the thirst for more information about Indian Defense was always high.

Finally, after my studies when I took up a job I got full access to internet and started searching for terms like Agni, Prithvi ( Few missile I knew and on which I had inadequate information) that I stumbled upon IDF. Only after this I knew that such sites exist! Then I remember surfing through the forum for all Defense related news, New projects, Missiles, the progress we made so far etc..., After 2-3 days I started searching for other Defense sites and stumbled upon quite a few which were too complex ( The analysis they do, or the form structure) for an amateur like me.

Of all, I found IDF to be the best place for me to bank on for knowledge with their simple form structure, members with expertise in one or the other Defense areas, and excellent analysis ( easy enough for newbies like me to grasp). The discussions on threads like History, India, Indian economy refined my views on our economy, where we stand and our role at the Global stage. And I have been around ever since.

I was also inspired by members like F-14, ZOOM, Saya etc who aren't Military professionals but still experts in Defense. I don't participate in much debates or analysis but I would like to thank all the members who contribute to DFI and indirectly to the society by cleansing, clarifying our knowledge. Also, I thank people who answer my questions.

I'm not Nostalgic nor sentimental about IDF because DFI doesn't look any diff than IDF with almost all IDF members around here and back with a more powerful theme.